EU: Free Trade Agreements

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	[This Question was omitted from the Written Answers section on Monday, 14 November because of a technical error.]
	Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 5 July 2004 (WA 65), with which non-European Union countries is the European Union currently negotiating free trade agreements which were not listed in that Answer.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: None.

A55

Lord Bradshaw: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How many drivers of heavy goods vehicles found to be exceeding the drivers' hours regulations on the A55 in north Wales in August, September and October of this year were driving vehicles registered in (a) the United Kingdom; (b) the Irish Republic; or (c) elsewhere in Europe.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) carried out checks on the A55 in north Wales between August and October 2005 at Holyhead, Ewloe and used a mobile checking facility. The agency found the numbers of vehicles not in compliance with drivers' hours regulations to be as shown in the table.
	
		
			 Country of origin Number of checks Number found to be not in compliance Rate 
			 UK 150 24 16% 
			 Republic of Ireland 269 122 45% 
			 Other EU 57 19 33% 
			 Non EU 3 1 33% 
			 Total 479 166 35%

Armed Forces: Law of Armed Conflict

Lord Astor of Hever: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether all British soldiers are receiving sufficient training in the law of armed conflict.

Lord Drayson: There is a comprehensive package of training on the law of armed conflict in place. All soldiers receive instruction in this during basic training, on an annual basis thereafter and prior to deployment to any operational theatre. The law of armed conflict is also covered in all career courses for Army officers.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The Countess of Mar: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What benefit options are available for individuals who have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and who have had their incapacity benefit withdrawn because they are deemed fit for work following a medical examination while they appeal against the decision.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: People appealing against a decision to disallow an incapacity benefit award following a determination that the threshold of incapacity is not met may register as available for work, and can qualify for jobseeker's allowance, pending the outcome of the appeal. Doing so will not prejudice their appeal. They will need to be available for and actively seeking work, but only within the limits of their physical or mental condition.
	People who do not make themselves available for work pending the appeal may claim income support, but a reduced personal allowance is payable. Entitlement to national insurance credits would be affected if the appeal tribunal subsequently confirmed the disallowance decision.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The Countess of Mar: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Why the Department of Work and Pensions medical examiners continue to assess patients with a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) as if they are suffering a psychiatric illness when the Chief Medical Officer has accepted that the illness is an organic illness comparable to multiple sclerosis.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The Department for Work and Pensions recognises a spectrum of conditions involving pain and fatigue, including chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), as potentially disabling illnesses.
	CFS/ME can affect both physical and mental functioning including cognitive ability (for example, concentration, short-term memory and mood). The Chief Medical Adviser's guidance to approved doctors recommends the completion of a mental health assessment whenever a condition affects mental functioning.

Computer Misuse Act 1990

The Earl of Northesk: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What plans they have to protect information technology infrastructure from denial of service attacks in light of the recent ruling on the scope of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 by District Judge Kenneth Grant at Wimbledon Magistrates Court.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: It would not be appropriate to comment on the specific case to which the noble Earl refers but officials are reviewing the details of this case with the CPS. The Government continue to believe that Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 criminalises denial of service attacks where either the offender or the system under attack is located in the UK. As previously announced, we. will be taking forward a number of changes to the Act when parliamentary time allows.

Department of Health: Information Security

Lord Harris of Haringey: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Which Minister has responsibility for information security in the Department of Health.

Lord Warner: Information security is part of the business risks that fall across the Department of Health and each Minister has responsibility for ensuring the risks are appropriately managed for their own area. Overall responsibility for departmental management, and as such information security, falls to the Minister of State, Jane Kennedy.
	The department has assigned the role of senior information risk owner to the director of strategy and business development group who ensures security risk management issues are represented at departmental board level. The department has appointed a departmental security officer and an information technology security officer to provide professional advice in the area of information security.

Education System

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have assessed the effectiveness of the comprehensive system of education in England; and, if so, whether this assessment has informed their decision to change the system.

Lord Adonis: The education system in England is widely recognised as a success. In 1997, a third of children left primary school without the skills to make proper progress to secondary school; in 2005, 79 per cent of pupils at key stage 2 are now achieving at least level 4 in English and 75 per cent are doing so in maths. This summer, 56 per cent of 15 year-olds achieved five or more good GCSEs, compared with 45 per cent in 1997. The greatest progress is being made in our most disadvantaged areas. For example, 50 per cent of pupils in inner London now get five or more good GCSEs, compared with a third in 1997.
	We must now ensure that the needs of every pupil are catered for. The attainment gap between different socio-economic groups is still too great. While there has been a sharp improvement in the number of good schools, there are too many children being let down by schools that are coasting. We are ranked 27th out of 30 industrialised countries in terms of our participation rate for 17 year-olds in continued education and training.
	The reforms set out in the recent schools White Paper will meet these challenges by enabling every school to be as good as the best and ensuring every child reaches their full potential.

European Court of Human Rights: PM v United Kingdom

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government: In light of the potential effect on marriage and inheritance law of the judgment at the European Court of Human Rights in the case of PM v the United Kingdom (application no. 6638/03), whether they have considered appealing against the decision. [HL2147]

Lord McKenzie of Luton: This case concerned the tax treatment of maintenance payments made by a father to the mother of his daughter for the benefit of their daughter. The couple in question had never been married. The court decided that as parents (whether previously married or not) had a legal obligation to maintain their children after a relationship had broken down, there was no objective justification for differentiating between previously married or unmarried fathers in terms of the tax treatment of the maintenance payments. The Government have decided not to appeal against the decision and the decision became final in October. The ruling focuses on tax treatment for payments made to support children after the breakdown of a relationship and gives no grounds for the Government to be concerned about impacts on marriage or inheritance.

Financial Years

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How a company's financial year beginning on or after 1 January 2005 can have ended on 1 October 2005 as indicated in Regulation 14 of the Companies Act 1985 (Investment Companies and Accounting and Audit Amendments Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/2280).

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Regulation 14 of the Companies Act 1985 (Investment Companies and Accounting and Audit Amendments) Regulations 2005 has effect in relation to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2005 and ending on or after 1 October 2005. A company's financial year may be shorter than 12 months if it has altered its accounting reference date to shorten its accounting reference period under Section 225 of the Companies Act 1985.

First Great Western Link: Cycle Carriage

Lord Berkeley: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have raised with First Great Western Link its prohibition of the carriage of cycles in the dedicated space for cycles on its Atelante services in peak hours; and whether such action will be taken into account in appraising bids for the Greater Western rail franchise.

Lord Davies of Oldham: This is a matter for First Great Western Link as part of its cycle carriage policy. First Great Western Link's current cycle carriage policy does not form part of the appraisal of bids for the new Greater Western rail franchise.

Government Buildings: Disposal

Lord Kilclooney: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McKenzie of Luton on 9 November (WA 79), how many government buildings in England are currently for sale; and how many of these will subsequently be rented by a government department.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: There are 33 freehold properties currently vacant on the Government's civil estate and capable of sale or re-use within government. Information about particular proposals for these properties is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Individual departments are accountable for the disposal of properties that are on their own estates, whether these are freehold or leasehold.

HM Treasury: Consultation Papers

Lord Jenkin of Roding: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What steps HM Treasury is taking to review its procedures for publishing consultation papers on its website, and, in particular, as required by Cabinet Office guidelines, for notifying those likely to be interested by issuing press releases to the printed media drawing attention to the consultation papers and giving information on how they can be accessed.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: HM Treasury is determined that information regarding consultations is brought to the attention of all relevant stakeholders including the general public in line with Cabinet Office guidelines. This includes publishing all consultation documents on the website. The department uses press notices where this is seen as the most effective form of communication in launching a consultation process. It also uses other forms of communication including sending hard copies of the consultation paper to interested parties.

Ministerial Code

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will appoint an independent arbiter of the Ministerial Code.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: I refer the noble Lord to the comments made by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister at his monthly press conference on 7 November, a transcript of which is available on the No. 10 website.

Personalised Learning

Baroness Sharp of Guildford: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What guidance will be available to local authorities on how to allocate funds between schools for personalised learning; what criteria will be set for schools to receive this funding; and what benchmark data they will use to inform local authority funding allocations for personalised learning.

Lord Adonis: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced on 17 October that £335 million of the increase in the new dedicated schools grant would be earmarked for personalised learning at key stage 3 by 2007–08; that this funding would be targeted particularly towards local authorities with the largest numbers of deprived children; and that she would expect authorities to ensure that they focused it, in particular, towards their most deprived schools and those facing the greatest challenges. She also announced that an additional £60 million in each of 2006–07 and 2007–08 would be available to authorities to enable them to support the schools in both primary and secondary sectors which have the greatest number of pupils who have fallen behind and face the greatest challenges in improving their performance.
	Details of the methodology used to distribute this funding between local authorities and the actual allocations for each authority will be announced as part of the wider announcement on school funding allocations for 2006–07 and 2007–08 later in the year. Guidance for local authorities on the distribution of funding between schools will be made available at the same time.

Police: Universal Jurisdiction Offences

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What number of police officers is engaged in the investigation of offences of universal jurisdiction where it is thought possible or likely that the alleged perpetrators may seek to enter the United Kingdom.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Metropolitan Police has the lead responsibility in the United Kingdom for the investigation of such offences. Its Crimes against Humanity Unit is situated within the Anti-Terrorist Branch SO13 and has a core staff of two officers, but additional resources may be allocated according to operational needs. It is an operational matter for the chief officer to decide whether to allocate resources to any particular investigation.

Railways: GoSkills

Lord Berkeley: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they support the creation of a rail industry skills forum.

Lord Davies of Oldham: HM Government support the continuing development and maintenance of a skilled workforce for the railway through GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council for Passenger Transport, in which the train operating companies are actively engaged and through the long-term initiatives being led by Network Rail.

Regional Assemblies

Baroness Hanham: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Across all departments, which bodies and statutory responsibilities are currently operating regionally, either as part of, or in association with, regional assemblies.

Baroness Andrews: Regional assemblies are voluntary bodies that have been designated to undertake certain tasks. They scrutinise the regional development agencies and are the regional planning body with responsibility for preparing the regional spatial strategy. In the performance of these roles assemblies must have regard to, and consult with, a wide range of bodies across the regions including the government offices for the regions, regional development agencies, housing corporation offices, regional cultural consortia, the Highways Agency and local authorities. As voluntary bodies, regional assemblies may undertake work within their regions on behalf of other departments where a regional input is required.

Terrorism Act 2000

Lord Lloyd of Berwick: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Scotland of Asthal on 28 February (WA 2), what offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 were the individuals convicted of; and what was the range of sentences imposed.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: As stated in my previous Answer, individuals arrested under the Terrorism Act may be charged and convicted under a range of other legislation including that for murder, explosives, firearms and so on. Since your Question, work has been commissioned for the provision of a breakdown of proceedings under the Terrorism Act 2000. Our statistics show that from 11 September 2001 to 30 September 2005, 23 people have been convicted under the Terrorism Act 2000. It should be noted that the information in the attached tables, taken from the Home Office court proceedings database, relates to the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts, found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 for England and Wales in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Because the figures do not relate to the same period the available tables will not reflect all 23 convictions. The figures in the attached relate to persons for whom these were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been proceeded against for two or more offences it is the offence for which he/she is found guilty, and where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. The figures given are a further breakdown of those published in Criminal Statistics, England and Wales for 2001, 2002 and 2003, supplementary tables, volume one, table S1.1(A) and the annex. Since it takes several months for court proceedings data to be received by the Home Office, validated and corrected, RDS will not publish statistics on court proceedings for 2004 until the end of November 2005.
	
		Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts, found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, England and Wales 20011
		
			 Offence description Statute Proceeded against Found guilty Sentenced 
			 Relating to membership of proscribed organisations Terrorism Act 2000, Sec 11 3 - - 
			 Wearing any item of dress in support of a proscribed organisation Terrorism Act 2000, Sec 13a - - - 
			 Wears, carries or displays any article in support of a proscribed organisation Terrorism Act 2000, Sec. 13b - - - 
			 Contributions towards acts of terrorism Terrorism Act 2000, Secs 15-18 & 22 1 - - 
			 Failure to disclose knowledge or suspicion of acts of terrorism Terrorism Act 2000, Sec.19 - - - 
			 Failure to leave a cordoned area immediately when ordered to do so by a constable in uniform Terrorism Act 2000, Sec.36(1)(a) - - - 
			 Failure to leave premises, which abut or are wholly or partially within a cordoned area, immediately if ordered to do so by a constable in uniform Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.36(1)(b) - - - 
			 Failure of driver or person in charge of a vehicle which is in a cordoned area immediately to move the vehicle if ordered to do so by a constable in uniform Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.36(c)(d)(e) - - - 
			 Contravention or a prohibition or restriction order made by a constable in uniform to a cordoned area Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.36(f) - - - 
			 Making any disclosure likely to prejudice an investigation about acts of terrorism or failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.39 - - - 
			 Failure to stop (Power to stop and search vehicles and pedestrians) Terrorism Act 2000, Secs.43, 44 and 47(1)(a)(b)(2) 1 - - 
			 Wilful obstruction (Power to stop and search vehicles and pedestrians) Terrorism Act 2000, Secs.43, 44 and 47(1)(c) and (2) - - - 
			 Failure to move vehicle when ordered to do so by a constable in uniform. (vehicle had been permitted to remain at rest in contravention of any prohibition or restriction) Terrorism Act 2000, Secs.48 and 51,(2) - - - 
			 Leaves a vehicle, or permits a vehicle to remain at rest, on a road in contravention of a prohibition or restriction Terrorism Act 2000 Secs.48 and 51(1) - - - 
			 Provides instruction; invites another to receive instruction in weapon training. Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.54 1 - - 
			 Directing terrorist training Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.56 - - - 
			 Collect, record or possession of information or articles likely to be of use to terrorists Terrorism Act 2000 Sec.57 and 58 - - - 
			 Failure to furnish information when required by examining officer Terrorism Act 2000, Sch.7(5)(a) and (18) - - - 
			 Failing to produce either a valid passport or identifying document when required by examining officer Terrorism Act 2000 Sch.7(5)(b) and (18) - - - 
			 Failing to declare or produce any relevant documents when required by examining officer Terrorism Act 2000 Sch 7(5)(c)(d) and (18) - - - 
			 Failing to submit to search by examining officer or person acting on his/her behalf Terrorism Act 2000 Sch 7(7)(8) and (18) - - - 
			 Failing to complete and produce an embarkation card when required to by examining officer Terrorism Act 2000 Sch 7(16) and (18) - - - 
			 Wilfully obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty in a cordoned area Terrorism Act 2000 Sch.5 Sec.36(1)(2) - - - 
			 Wilfully obstructing or seeking to frustrate the object of a search in a cordoned area Terrorism Act 2000 Sch 5(1-3) - - - 
			  Total 6 - - 
		
	
	1 These data are on the principal offence basis.
	Source: RDS: Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Home Office IoS: 079-05